Khutbahs
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It Actually Starts with Tahajjud | Khutbah
Whether its the liberation of Palestine, or the liberation of self, the night prayer plays a crucial role in what is unfolding today. Tahajjud may seem like some exclusive worship for a tiny set of people, but its actually the first foundation of self and society, and the beginning of victory against a brutal enemy. Dr Omar Suleiman discusses in his khutbah.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the day of judgment, and we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, typically when we talk about the effect that we are having on the rest of the ummah, there is this sense of introspection that's lacking. What role am I playing at the spiritual level when it comes to everyone else? And so you can talk about the role of sins and bringing about burden, or you could talk about the role of du'a and bringing about relief. But subhanAllah, there's a very specific act of worship that distinguishes us from everyone else. And many people would think that this act of worship is for this small group of people. It's for the awliya. It's for this small group of friends of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that not many people can do, and some would even say that it's unwise to even talk about this act of worship when people are struggling with the bare minimum. So someone might say, why would you talk about qiyam al-layl? Why would you talk about the night prayer when most Muslims are struggling to even pray five times a day? And I'm going to tell you exactly why and why it's so important in this moment. If a person is not praying five times a day, then it could be that they are a source of sin upon this ummah. But if a person wants to be a source of strength for this ummah, then that's where qiyam comes in. That's number one. Number two, it could be that in that night prayer that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala provokes in you a
sweetness in your talking to him, in your relationship with him, in those moments of being alone that actually transforms the quality of your five salawats. If you learn to enjoy your qiyam, if you learn to enjoy two rak'ahs at night, that can actually transform all five of your prayers during the day. Because you actually would have had some meaning in it, and you're not thinking about everything that has to come and everything that you have to do. Inna nashiyat al-layli hiya ashaddu wata'an wa aqwa muqeela. Allah Azawajal tells the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that verily the night and in the night it is a time where you can develop greater strength, and you're less distracted because inna laka fin nahari sabhan taweela. There's so much that you have to do during the day. And so the quality that you gain from two rak'ahs at night can transform five prayers of the day. But there's something else that I really want us to get to. And I say this, by the way, subhanAllah, that this is something that we should all aspire to, starting with myself. This is a deed that we should struggle with, and this is a deed that I am struggling with, and this is a deed that I hope all of us will struggle with bi-idhnillahi ta'ala. That in this moment in particular, there is nothing that can build us for the moment like qiyam as individuals and as societies. There is nothing that can give us victory over those who oppress us like this particular act of worship. And I want to take you back to the moment that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam comes to Medina, and he gives his inauguration speech. And you've all heard this many times, but I want you to pay attention to the only thing that differentiates this speech, or the main thing that differentiates the speech from anything that anyone had ever heard before. Ayyuhan nas. He gathers all the people. The Muslims, the Jews of Medina, the polytheists of Medina, the people that, maybe the few Christians in Medina,
people of all different backgrounds and faiths, right? They're coming around to hear what this man is going to say sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in Medina when he finally has a platform. He can finally speak, because in Mecca they didn't allow him to speak in public sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. They persecuted him alayhi wa sallam in his own home. Ayyuhan nas, O people. Afshussalam, spread peace. Now if you're not Muslim, you can appreciate spread peace. Afshussalam, and of course we have the specific greeting assalamu alaykum. But it's more than that, because so many Muslims say assalamu alaykum, but they intend everything else except for salam when they give it to you. They say assalamu alaykum, peace be on to you, but everything under the words of salam is not salam, right? So salamu alaykum is an intention towards your brother as well. Assalamu alaykum, peace be on to you, an intention from sister to sister as well. Assalamu alaykum, peace be on to you. Afshussalam, spread peace, not just with your words, but with everything else. All right, if I'm someone who's hearing the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam for the first time, I've heard something like that before. Feed the poor. Beautiful. Salam is what Jesus, peace be upon him, used to say in the Bible, right? Even now, peace be on to you. This is the greeting of the Prophets. Assalamu alaykum. Feed the poor. We can find this noble trait in multiple ways of life. Of course, we want to excel with it and we have a different push towards it, but feed the people and especially the poor. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Wasirul arham, and connect your families. Establish the ties of kinship. This is a beautiful trait, a beautiful quality that has a universal manifestation. Then he says, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, Wasallu bil layli wal nasu niyam. Pray at night while other people are sleeping. Stand up and pray at night when everybody else goes to sleep.
Tadkhulu aljannata bi salam. You'll enter paradise in peace. This is different. SubhanAllah, in the narration of Abdullah ibn Amr bin Aas, Qala alayhi salatu wa salam, U'bidu ar-Rahman. Worship ar-Rahman. Who is ar-Rahman? Never heard of ar-Rahman before, the most merciful. Worship ar-Rahman. And, afshu salamu at'imu ta'am, and so on and so forth. Spread peace and feed the people. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying that the way this society is going to be established and distinguish itself, the secret ingredient beyond what we already know, of the good things that Allah has put in us to naturally incline towards, the secret ingredient is going to be that those same people that are spreading peace, those same people that are feeding the poor, those same people that are working, are not making an excuse for themselves to not fight with their bodies and stand up to replenish their souls at night. This is what's going to be your secret ingredient to building this society, O Ansar, in a way that no one has ever ever built a society before. This is where it's going to come down to, the characters that build the culture of Medina. Wa sallu bil-layli wal-nasu niyam. Tadkhulu al-jannah bisalam. A very specific group of people. Stand up and pray at night when other people go to sleep. SubhanAllah, there's a connection here. The first address in Medina that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam gives to the people is, stand up and pray at night. And the first address that Allah gives to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in Mecca, in his most devastating times, when he's alone in society is, Ya ayyuhal muzzammil qumil layla illa qaleela. Of the first words, O you who is wrapped up, stand up at night and pray, except for a little bit. Push yourself, O Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Because in Medina, you need to build a society. But in Mecca, you need to build a character. You need to build a certain type of spiritual resilience
that's going to allow you to deal with oppression. In Mecca, you have to resist the society that wants you to be something you're not. In Medina, you have to build a society that no one has ever seen before. And the secret ingredient of both of those is going to be your willingness to stand up and pray at night. Because you're going to nurture something in those moments that no one else can nurture. You're going to kindle a fire in your heart in those moments that no one else knows what it's like to kindle. But you have to be willing to put in that sacrifice. Before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made the five prayers obligatory, he made qiyam al-layl obligatory on the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. He made the night prayer obligatory on the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and the believers by extension. Then once Allah revealed the five obligatory prayers, then the second part of al-muzzammil was revealed as Aisha radiAllahu anha said, which turned it into a voluntary prayer. So you will not be punished on the day of judgment for not praying qiyam al-layl. It's not obligatory. And I want to make that very clear. But in this moment, subhanAllah, you want to build yourself as an individual? You want to build a society? It's the secret ingredient. It's the secret ingredient of victory. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the battle of Badr, when the Muslims were outnumbered by those who had no good intentions towards them and wanted to do all sorts of things towards them, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not attribute the victory that came to them through the archers or the way that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was able to develop a scheme where he could deal with, you know, this genocidal group of people that outnumbered him. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, The victory came last night when you were in the tents and you were making dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you were supplicating your Lord. That's when Allah answered you. When you were in the tent the night before,
it wasn't what you put together the day of, it was the night before. And we know the famous story of Salahuddin al-Ayubi rahimuhullah, when he was dealing with the crusaders, trying to retake Jerusalem from the crusaders. What does he do in Hattin? He goes through the tents, not yet, not yet, not yet. But when he sees the lights on in the tents, now we're ready. When he sees that these people who are dealing with the brutal conditions of war against the crusaders of all people, who have seen horrors that none of us can even imagine, even in this time, and he goes around and he sees them by themselves, waking up and praying at night, now it's there. Now that ingredient is there. In our personal lives, dua is an arrow. Dua is a connection between you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala over those who commit dhulm against you. And on a community level, dua is an arrow that we have against those who oppress our ummah. It is a connection from us to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It is the secret ingredient. It is the distinguishing factor. Now again, someone is like, I can barely pray five times a day. I'm struggling with fajr. I'm struggling with isha. I'm struggling with asr in the middle of my workday. Why are you giving a khutbah about qiyam? Dear brothers and sisters, we've all adjusted ourselves in these last few months in some way. I guarantee you that your social media usage has probably gone up, right, as you're consumed by what's happening. I guarantee you that your thoughts have shifted. I guarantee you that your emotions have shifted. Your priorities have shifted. Your perspectives have shifted. What better time than for all of us to say, you know what? I'm going to take on this habit once a week,
twice a week. And if I taste the sweetness of it, it might inject the sweetness that I needed in my salah. And it might give us the victory that we need over ourselves and then over those that oppress us. Because if you win that battleground, then you can win any battle. And if you gain that peace, then the jannah is in your heart before you attain any likeness of jannah in this world or jannah in the hereafter. But it takes a sacrifice. And I know all of us right now are thinking about the ways that we can help. And there is nothing like dua that can help. And there is nothing like dua in the last third of the night that can help. And that comes from you as an individual. Build the individual in Mecca. Build the society in Medina. Think about Badr. Think about Hattin. Go back to yourself and say, you know what? Even if I'm struggling with my five daily prayers, I'm going to struggle with one night a week, two nights a week. And then you're not just only not a source of sin to the ummah. You're actually a source of strength to the ummah as well. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la give us all the ability to stand up and pray at night. And may He inject sweetness into all of our prayers. And may He put success in the prayers that we make. And may He allow our prayers to be a source of comfort and security and victory and goodness to us and to the world around us, to our ummah in Gaza, to our ummah in Palestine, to our ummah all over the world.
Allahumma salli wa sallam wa barik ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tasliman kathira. Allahumma khfir lil mu'minin wa lil mu'minat wa lil muslimin wa lil muslimat. Al-ahya'i minhum wa l-amwat. Innaka sami'un qareebun mujeebu d-da'wat. Allahumma khfir lana wa arhamna. Wa a'fu anna wa la tu'adhibna. Rabbana zalamna anfusana. Wa in lam takhfir lana wa tarhamna. Lana kunnanna minal khasireen. Allahumma innaka afuun kareemun. Tuhibbu l-afur fa'afu anna. Allahumma khfir li walidina. Rabb irhamhuma kama rabbuna sigara. Rabbana hablana min azwajina wa dhurriyatina qurra ta'ayun. Wa ja'anna lil muttaqina imama. Allahumma ansur ikhwan al-mustad'afin fi falastin. Allahumma ansur ikhwan al-mustad'afin fi falastin. Allahumma aslih ahwal ikhwan al-mankubin fi falastin. Allahumma ansur huma ala aduwika wa aduwihim. Allahumma ansur ikhwan al-mustad'afin fi masharik al-ardi wa magharibiha. Allahumma izzal islama wa al-muslimin. Wa idhilla al-shirk wa al-kathibin. Wa damil a'dadin. Allahumma ahliki al-zalimina bil-zalimin. Wa khrijna wa ikhwana man baynihim salimin. Ibadullah, inna Allahi ya'mru bil-adli wa al-ihsan. Wa ita'i lil-qurba. Wa yanha'an al-fahsha'i wa al-munkari wa al-baghi. Ya'idhukum al'alakum tadhakkarun. Fathkuru Allahi yadhkurukum. Wa ashkuruhu ala ni'ma'i yazid lakum. Wala dhikru Allahi akbar. Wa Allahu ya'l wa ma tasna'oon. Waqim as-salam.
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